arture.

"But this, my Elza, is very different. I did not wish to do what I am
doing now. I had planned--I had thought, had actually hoped, that I
might maintain myself in the Great City. You see, I tell you this,
little girl, because--well I am a lonely man. I walk alone--and because
I am human--it does me good to have someone to talk to. I had hoped I
might maintain myself in the Great City. Last night--at the start of the
Water Festival--I began to realize it was impossible. I should have
enlisted the _Rhaals_--the men of science, Elza. But I had no time, and
they are very aloof. I could have won them to me had I tried." He
shrugged. "I must confess I was over-confident of my strength--the
strength of my position. The _Rhaals_ stayed out of the affair--stayed
in their own city, which has always been their policy. That was what I
expected, but now I see I should have had their aid. I did--well what I
did to guard against the unhappy outcome you witnessed--what I did was
wrongly planned. You see, I take all the blame. I alone am responsible
for my destiny. There are some who in defeat cry bitterly, 'Luck! That
cursed luck was against me!' Not so! Leadership is not a matter of luck.
Destiny is what you make it. You see?

"And so now I am making my first retreat. A set-back, nothing more. I
shall launch my forces from the City of Ice, instead of marshalling them
from the Central State as I had planned. And Mars is still mine. I still
control Mars, little Elza.... A set-back just now--and it bothers me. It
hurts my pride--and as you know, my Elza, Tarrano is very proud."

She had been listening to him, her fingers plucking idly at her robe. He
bent closer to her; his voice turned tender. "I was thinking that
perhaps--just perhaps you would scorn Tarrano in his triumphs, you might
feel differently toward him now--in his first retreat. Do you?"

She forced her eyes up to his again. "I'm--sorry--from your viewpoint, I
mean--that things are going wrong."

He smiled gently. "You are very conservative, Lady Elza. You want very
much to avoid hypocrisy, don't you?"

"Yes," she said frankly. "You could hardly expect me to be sorry at your
defeat."

"Defeat?" He rasped out the word, and his laugh was harsh. "You are too
optimistic. Defeat? Things going wrong? That is not so. A slight
set-back. A strategic retreat--and in a week I will have regained more
than I have lost.... Oh, Lady Elza! I who would now--and always--be so